Heavy medal

Boys swim team places second at Fort Zumwalt Invitational

More stories from Melissa Wyas

Behind the bully
March 17, 2016

This past Saturday, the boys swim and dive team competed at the Fort Zumwalt North Invitational meet. Even though the team had a grim outlook going into the meet, they managed to place second overall. The team placed in the top three in almost every single event, with some swimmers receiving multiple medals. Junior co-captains Ryan Eilers and Tyler Buchanan were very pleased with how the meet went.

“We knew there were going to be some tough competition at this meet. Being completely honest, I expected a good third or fourth place. We ended up getting second, which was crazy! I didn’t expect that at all. Our team amazes me at every meet,” said Buchanan.

Eilers attributes the team’s success to their hard work and determination.

“There was a lot of pressure at this meet. We did much better than I expected. Every single person dropped time in at least one of their events. That’s unheard of. All of the swimmers who placed have been pushing themselves hard and deserve the places they got,” said Eilers.

The team is now focusing on their conference meet, which are later this month.

Sophomore Michael Lippincott believes the Zumwalt North meet is a way for the team to evaluate what they need to improve on before then.

“This meet is nice because it’s our last big meet before the end of our regular season. So we get a good practice run at our events before GACs. We get to see how it might go,” said Lippincott.

Eilers thinks of this meet as a sort of reality check.

“I swam against some of the guys I’ll be swimming against at GACs. So it puts everything into perspective. It shows me what I need to fix and what I’m doing right.” said Eilers.

Buchanan has high hopes for the conference meet on October 28th through 30th.

“We’ve been improving pretty steadily over the course of the season. Everyone has been dropping time, so I expect a lot at GACs,” said Buchanan.

Lippincott, along with the rest of the team, are aiming for the top.

“I’m hoping for first, maybe second. That would be awesome,” said Lippincott.

The boys next swim meet is next Friday against Fort Zumwalt North.